The Maharashtra government recently approved 61 new colleges in the state. This news works in favor of Mumbai University as out of these 61 new colleges, 24 falls under Mumbai University itself. And out of these 24 colleges, 10 are Law colleges.

This is a very good news for the students who somehow were left out as there were not enough seats in the undergraduate programs. Now with the inclusion of these new colleges, the students will get 2,000 new seats. But, at the same time, the Mumbai university will have to take immense care of the staff. As the seats are increasing, maintaining the quantity and quality of teachers will be a responsibility on the varsity authorities. According to the sources, the approval was given by the government before 15 June only. But, as more time was needed for approving the proposals, the government had no choice but to extend the date till 31 July. The resolution was finally passed on Friday, with a big gap of two years.

The government has approved those courses which were in demand. The government received almost 300 applications for this, but most of them were rejected as they were not able to fulfill the criteria. Last year also, the education minister had decided of approving new colleges as there were excess seats available in all colleges in the state. The number of colleges that are affiliated with the Mumbai university has now increased to 750, on the other hand, the increase in the number of the position for the non-teaching staff is only 8.

MA Khan, Registrar, said, “The university doesn’t have enough staff to manage the existing colleges and with the new colleges, the number of affiliated colleges goes up to around 280. We hope the state government sanctions more posts in the university.”

Some of the colleges that are running a popular course will be able to start from this academic year itself. Also, all those colleges that are in demand will get an advantage when it comes to providing them affiliation. Whereas, colleges offering courses in science and commerce stream will have to take a no-objection certification so that they get affiliated. Anil Patil, director of the Board of College and University Development said, “Once the colleges comply with the GR, the online admission process will begin. If necessary, we will extend the dates.”

On the issue of affiliation, the Director of an institute in Thane said, “It will be unfair to start admissions to courses half way into the semester, as other colleges started lectures at least a month ago. The government should have thought this through before giving out approvals.”